Electoral division of Blain

Blain
Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly

Location of Blain in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory Northern Territory
Created 1997
MP Terry Mills
Party Independent
Namesake Adair Blain
Electors 5,576 (2016)
Area 18 km2 (6.9 sq mi)
Demographic Urban

Blain is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997 and is named after Adair Blain, the second member for the federal Northern Territory electorate, and the only Australian sitting federal MP to ever become a prisoner of war. Blain is an urban electorate, covering 18 km² and taking in Palmerston suburbs of Bellamack and Woodroffe, and most of the suburb of Rosebery and a small section of the suburb of Moulden. There were 5,576 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2016.

History

Palmerston has always been a staunchly conservative area, and all the electorates in the city have almost always been held by the Country Liberal Party. Blain has even amongst the Palmerston electorates been in the past a particularly safe seat for the CLP, with successive members having little trouble being re-elected. This was further emphasised at the 2005 election, when Blain was one of only four CLP-held seats retained by the party after a landslide victory by the Australian Labor Party, and the only CLP seat in the Darwin/Palmerston area.

Longtime CLP MP Barry Coulter, who had represented Palmerston-area electorates since 1983 (Berrimah from 1983 to 1987 and Palmerston from 1987 to 1997) held this seat for the final term of his parliamentary career. He was succeeded by Terry Mills, who became a prominent member of the CLP frontbench after the CLP lost power for the first time in 2001. He eventually became CLP leader from 2003 to 2005, returning to the leadership in 2008. After narrowly losing the 2008 Territory election, he led the CLP to victory in 2012 and became Chief Minister.

Mills was deposed in a party-room coup less than a year later, and Nathan Barrett retained the seat for the CLP at the ensuing by-election despite a 10 percent swing.

Barrett was forced out of politics in 2016 after he sent a lewd video to a constituent.[1] At the 2016 election, the CLP was pushed into third place after its primary vote plummeted to 25 percent, losing more than half of its primary vote from 2012. The seat was nearly swept up in the massive Labor wave that swept through the metropolitan area. However, Mills, contesting his old seat as an independent, narrowly defeated former federal MP Damian Hale to return to the legislature.

Members for Blain

MemberPartyTerm
  Barry Coulter Country Liberal 1997–1999
  Terry Mills Country Liberal 1999–2014
  Nathan Barrett Country Liberal 2014–2016
  Independent 2016
  Terry Mills Independent 2016-present

Election results

Northern Territory general election, 2016: Blain[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Damian Hale 1,597 37.3 +5.3
Independent Terry Mills 1,341 31.3 +31.3
Country Liberal Marie-Clare Boothby 1,102 25.7 −37.9
Independent Gregory Knowles 241 5.6 +5.6
Total formal votes 4,280 97.3 +0.6
Informal votes 121 2.7 −0.6
Turnout 4,402 78.9 +16.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
Independent Terry Mills 1,953 51.4 +51.4
Labor Damian Hale 1,849 48.6 +13.8
Independent gain from Country Liberal Swing N/A

References

  1. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-11/nt-minister-nathan-barrett-resigns-amid-sex-video-allegations/7502236
  2. ↑ Blain – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 9 September 2016

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